City By The Bay
by otakukuro
Summary: Buffy/Charmed. Dawn runs away to San Francisco and it's up to Spike to track her down. Unfortunately Dawn isn't willing to come home and the Charmed Ones aren't willing to hand over a young girl to a soulless vampire.
1. Chapter 1

**City By The Bay**

A Buffy/Charmed Crossover.

Summary: Set in 6th Season. Dawn runs away to San Francisco and it's up to Spike to track her down. Unfortunately Dawn isn't willing to come home and the Charmed Ones aren't willing to hand over a young girl to a soulless vampire.

A/N: There are probably some things off, but I decided to take some creative license. Why not? Anyway, I hope you enjoy my first Buffy/Charmed crossover. Feel free to praise or flame, I'm ready for all!

* * *

The sun was setting in San Francisco, the sky fading from bright blue to pink to deep violet as the sun dropped down over the horizon. Shadows began to lengthen on the city streets and the lights of the city began to flick on in preparation for the city's night-life crowd. In a dirty alley, unobserved by all, a dark car sat parked and quiet. The black DeSoto was well camouflaged in the shadows, which was fortunate since if it hadn't been it would have undoubtedly drawn the attention of local law enforcement. Every one of the old car's windows had been covered from the inside with black paint and duct tape, making it impossible to see through them. The only uncovered spot was a small patch in the windshield, presumably so the driver could see where he was going. The interior of this suspicious-looking vehicle was as dark as the outside, and was filled with a thick miasma of cigarette smoke.

As soon as the sun fell below the bay's horizon, the car's door was shoved open and a cloud of smoke came billowing out along with the dark form of a man. "_About bloody time_." A voice with a cockney British accent snapped as he slammed the door shut and stepped out of the smoke and shadows. He was dressed in all black, down to his boots and leather duster, and his hair was a slicked-back peroxide blonde. He stamped out the last bit of a well-used cigarette, muttering something about being stuck all day in a hot-as-hell car in bloody California weather.

Spike let the smoke filter out of his unmoving lungs for a few seconds before walking back into the alley, remembering pathways that he'd picked up on when he and Drusilla had visited so many years ago. Unlike then, however, he wasn't here to have a good time (not like he could anyway), instead he was here trying to track down one little 15 year old girl who'd skipped off away from home. All the way to bleedin' _San Francisco_. The bit was going to have some serious explaining to do.

It had already been three days since the bit went missing, apparently she took some money out of her sisters room and headed for the bus stop instead of school that morning. At least he hoped she decided to take the bus, he had to think the nibblet had more sense than to hitch-hike. The sun had already set by the time Buffy burst into his crypt looking for Dawn, and all night before they realized she wasn't in Sunnydale. He'd managed to convince Buffy to stay while he went to go track down the youngest Summers', but after two days of searching and pumping various demons for information all he had was the word of a local snitch that a girl fitting Dawn's description had recently shown up in city. The way the guy had described her as 'tasty-looking but not something I'd chase across city-lines' had earned the lizardy demon a quick death and only served to make Spike even more anxious. He hadn't brought any blood along with him either, which was starting to become a problem - but he refused to go back without Dawn. There was no way he could face the Slayer empty-handed.

* * *

Dawn walked along the sidewalk, making sure to keep around lots of people. She hadn't really expected to have made it this far, so she was both excited and nervous. The fifteen year old knew her disappearance had to have been discovered, and though she was totally serious about running-away, she had also been sure one of the Scoobies would have found her by now. _'Maybe they gave up because they couldn't find me.'_ She thought, _'Or maybe there's some really evil demon doing some evil stuff and they just don't have time to go looking for me... or maybe they just haven't noticed.' _She shook off the less-than-happy thoughts. Buffy definitely noticed, and Dawn felt guilty for making her sister sad, but she knew it would be easier on Buffy if she wasn't there. After all, since Buffy had come back from the dead she hadn't been herself. She was in some weird sort of daze all the time, and having a little sister to take care of was just adding to her stress. Dawn knew that Buffy was trying to support her, but they hardly ever spoke to each other besides her being scolded for skipping school and now she just felt like a burden. Who needed a fake little sister to have to take care of anyway? She was, like, thousands of years old, she could take care of herself. And there was that whole thing about Spike... But that was all in the past. From now on she was on her own.

And so, on her own, she'd winded up in San Francisco, for no particular reason other than that's where the buses took her. Three days running, and only a 6 or 7 hour car ride from home. She tugged at the load on her back. She had her book-bag with her, filled with clothes and other essentials, including a spare stake, and her pockets were half filled with quickly-depleting money she'd stolen from her sister's bedroom. So far things were going pretty well. But now the sun had set and she didn't have enough money to get even a cheap hotel room. She'd slept enough on the bus over, but she knew she needed to find someplace with enough people that she wouldn't be a huge target. After living in Sunnydale, she knew at least that much.

Just as she was starting to get tired of walking she came across a club that looked a lot like The Bronze. The sign on the roof said P3 which was a weird name, but she figured if she was going to stay up all night in a city she didn't know, she might as well have some fun. Luckily she still had her fake ID she had gotten with one of her friends. She looked way to young to pass for 21, but she got in as an 18 year old with a black 'X' marked clearly on the back of her hand. She didn't even bother going to try to wash it off, alcohol was still 'eww' as far as she was concerned. So instead she decided to head to the heart of the club and straight to the dance floor.

* * *

Spike snatched a pinkish demon by the back of his shirt and slammed him unceremoniously to the ground. He was one of many demons Spike had found lurking around searching for suitable prey, and hopefully eighth time's the charm. "Hey there, mate." He said jovially, as the demon got to his feet looking more than a little pissed. "Can't help but notice you taking in the sights. You wouldn't happen to have seen a girl, long brown hair, 'bout ye big, wandering around lookin' lost, now have ya?"

The demon seemed to size Spike up a bit before deciding to play it cool. "Haven't seen anything. Go ask someone else."

Unfortunately for the demon, Spike was pretty good at knowing when someone was lying to him, and within the next second the pinkish demon was pinned to the wall, the vampire's arm pressing hard against his throat. "Izzat right? Sorry, mate, but you're going to have to think a little harder than that."

The demon struggled and attempted to push the blonde vampire off with no success. "Hey, listen man, I said I didn't see anything! There's hundreds of humans through here every night, think I can remember every one of em?"

Spike made a faint growling noise and pulled a stake out of his jacket and placed the tip right between the demon's eyes. Sure, the pink thing wasn't a vampire, but most things didn't like to have spikes driven through their skulls. And he would know.

The demon's eyes crossed a bit and he stilled his struggles. "Hey, _hey_! Wait, wait a minute, _alright_! Brown haired girl, like 15-16 maybe? She had this sort of blue backpack on or something, like she was coming home from school. She went into the club over there, I was gonna wait til she came out. I didn't know she was taken already, I swear!" The demon babbled, without taking his eyes off the wooden spike.

The blonde vampire smirked a bit and let the demon drop to the ground. "There we are, not too hard was it?" He slipped the stake back in his duster and brushed some imaginary dust off himself, "Nice word of advice, mate: stay away from that girl, she's mine. Feel free to spread that around." He said before the demon took off deeper into the alley. He was a bit disappointed at not being able to kill anything, but he didn't feel like getting a reputation out here for killing every other demon he got in contact with. Might not sit well with a few people, and he wasn't here to get into any demonic disputes.

He stomped out another cigarette, one of almost a dozen he'd burnt through that night, and headed across the street to a club called P3, being sure to offer a few '_sod off_'s to the cars honking around him. He got in the club easily, and began looking around. He scowled at how many people where there; even if the bit _was_ in the club he wouldn't be able to sniff her out in this huge crowd of sweaty humans. Instead he decided to lurk around the edges of the dance club, falling easily into the role of a predator stalking his prey. He may be chipped, but all the instincts were there, and who was better at hunting young girls than him? Well, maybe Peaches but he didn't feel like thinking about him right now. He hung back in the shadows around the dance floor and tried to catch a glimpse of the Nibblet among the crowd.

* * *

Dancing was already starting to get old. Dawn was tired and she found that going out wasn't as fun when you didn't have anyone to talk to or hang out with. She was about to go and blow a few dollars on a soda when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She moved around a support beam and looked again. There, lurking on the edge of the dance floor, was Spike. Figures he would be the one to find her, but luckily he hadn't seen her yet. She kept watching him from behind the beam until he turned to search another part of the club, then she took her chance and headed for the back exit. She was so preoccupied with avoiding Spike's gaze that she accidentally ran into someone on her way to the door. She made a quick apology to the slightly stunned woman and rushed toward the door.

The muttered tones of an apology suddenly caught Spike's attention. The blaring music and dozens of different conversations going on would have made it impossible for a normal person to hear, but Spike had his advanced vampire hearing tuned to any sound the bit might make, and he found just what he was looking for. He turned around just in time to see Dawn slip out the back and growled slightly at the fact that she had run away from him. Calming himself down a little, he began moving through the crowd toward the back door. He was so focused on getting to Dawn (preferably before anything else did), that he didn't notice the young woman rushing toward the bar.

* * *

Phoebe Halliwell sped over to where her sisters were seated at the bar. They had agreed earlier to get together tonight to hang out and Phoebe was already about 30 minutes late, but that was not the reason for her rushing. She had just had a vision of a demon attack, and since the girl seemed alright just now, she knew it was a vision from the future: a vision she could stop.

She came up to the bar where she was noticed by her sisters. "And just where have you been missy?" Piper said, obviously just having gotten through complaining over her younger sister's lateness. Paige just leaned on the bar with an amused look on her face.

"I just had a vision." Phoebe replied quietly, before leaning in a bit closer and whispering, "This girl I bumped into, she's going to be attacked by demons."

"What kind of demons? Did you see?" Paige whispered back.

"Most of them were scaley and green, and then there was one who looked human except for his face. It was all _bumpy_." She gestured vaguely to her forehead. "His hair was white-ish, he kinda looked like a demon Billy Idol."

"O-kay..." Paige looked a bit bemused.

"Where's the girl?" Piper asked instead, looking around from where Phoebe came.

"Um," Phoebe looked behind her and scanned the area. "I think she went out the back. Come on, let's go."

* * *

As soon as Dawn stepped out of the club she realized her mistake. The alley she'd stepped into was both dark and deserted, which did not mean good. She was about to turn back into the club and risk Spike finding her when a scaley hand was suddenly clamped over her mouth. She tried to scream, but the hand held tight and she was dragged back away from the club's door. There were about five lizardy demons surrounding her, including the one holding her tight. The demon's strong green arms were wrapped around her torso, pinning her arms to her sides. The demon holding her was just saying something about her being bait, when the door to the club slammed open and Spike jumped out into the alley.

It didn't take long for the vampire to figure out the situation, and within the next few moments the demon holding Dawn was ripped off of her and killed, the lizard demon dissolving into nothing. The other four demons looked outraged, while Spike just looked pleased. "And I was just thinking about how much I wanted to kill something - and here you lot are." Dawn scrambled out of the way as the blonde vampire changed into game-face and charged at the remaining demons. He took a bit longer than necessary, enjoying beating each of the demons down before snapping each of their necks. He wasn't too familiar with this kind of demon, but this method of killing them seemed to do the trick as each of the four demons were vanquished into nothing but air.

Spike straightened himself up and looked around to make sure there weren't anymore hanging around. When he was satisfied he turned to face Dawn, "Got yourself a death wish Nibblet?" He asked.

Dawn stood up from were she had slumped down on the wall, feeling upset at herself that she hadn't been able to take one of the demons. She had a stake with her, and she was the Slayer's little sister, she should have gotten at least one. She looked up at the vampire who'd watched over her all summer while Buffy was dead, and instead of saying thank you, like she knew she should have, she settled on, "I'm not going back, you know."

"The hell your not." He snapped back, moving toward the teenage girl. He noticed that Dawn startled a bit, and paused in his steps - mostly because Dawn was usually extremely unafraid of him. Seriously, no matter what he said or did to the bit he could never make her do more than cross her arms and glare at him challengingly. It was very annoying and didn't help his Big Bad self-image very much. It was then he realized that he was still in game-face and made a small huff of annoyance, he couldn't believe that had gotten her to jump! Not that she'd seen him in game-face that often, but she knew he was a vampire. He'd spent a good part of the summer (the part of which Buffy would never know about) describing in detail his most infamous kills, she'd even laughed with him over a few of em! And this was all it took? What a waste of good scaring material.

He was just about to change back and drag Dawn kicking and screaming back to Sunnydale when the door to the club burst open yet again. The appearance of the three women surprised both Spike and Dawn who had expected more demons. Spike, however, wasn't distracted enough to miss the fact that one of the women was one he'd already pegged as the owner of the club (from when he was stalking around the bar) and that another was currently trying to hit him with a flying kick. A literally flying kick. She levitated about five feet off the ground before swinging her leg out to kick him in the head. He brought his hand up quickly to catch her ankle in a solid grip, and tossed her back towards the wall - then his head exploded in pain.

The chip told him quite clearly that these girls were human, if the painful electric shocks going through his brain were anything to go by. That was just his luck, he could deal with demons, but humans made this much more difficult. His vampire ridges slid away as he recoiled from the shock, but he looked up quickly when he heard the Nibblet's startled cry and was just in time to see the club owner woman throw out her hands in a flicking motion. Then, next thing he knew, they were gone.

* * *

_To be continued...

* * *

_

_A/n: Press the button! You know you want to._


	2. Chapter 2

**City By The Bay**

A Buffy/Charmed Crossover.

A/N: Alright, I finished the second chapter. I had most of it done anyway. Sorry it's short, I found a good stopping point and wanted to get up a little more of the story asap. I'd like to thank the people who put this story on alert the very first day, it's really very flattering. Anyway, like I said, any kind of review is welcome. Now on to the second chapter.

* * *

_Last time:_

The chip told him quite clearly that these girls were human, if the painful electric shocks going through his brain were anything to go by. That was just his luck, he could deal with demons, but humans made this much more difficult. His vampire ridges slid away as he recoiled from the shock, but he looked up quickly when he heard the Nibblet's startled cry and was just in time to see the club owner woman throw out her hands in a flicking motion. Then, next thing he knew, they were gone.

* * *

Dawn pulled away from the witches as soon as she knew which way was where. The back of her legs hit something solid and she fell in a heap on a soft couch. Everything had been going so well too! She'd been able to survive on her own for 3 days, had avoided all demons (falling into the clutches of those lizard things she was planning to blame on Spike), and she had even been prepared to try to convince Spike to let her continue to live on her own - and then she just had to go and get kidnapped. Again!

When she looked up the three woman from before were still not paying attention. Taking her chance, she got up quickly and ran to the other side of the couch, not much of a barrier, she knew, but it was all she had. These were pretty powerful witches she was dealing with, well, at least she thought they were witches. Spike's chip going off meant they were human, and by the looks of it they were into some heavy mojo. From what she could tell, they could do magiks without saying any spells, which is more than even Willow could do. She just hoped they were good witches like Willow was.

"Phoebe, are you alright?" Dawn saw the witch who could apparently teleport with a bunch of white bubbly things ask the witch she saw flying. When she had hit the wall Spike's chip went off, so she knew it must have hurt.

"Yeah, but I'm going to be super sore tomorrow..." Phoebe replied, before she noticed Dawn had run to the other side of their living room couch. "Oh, hey, sweetheart, there's no reason to be afraid. We're here to help."

"Do you know why you were being attacked?" Dawn turned to the witch who had paralyzed Spike. Well, more than paralyzed... he was just stopped, frozen or something. It had really freaked her out. Piper knew it was a long shot to ask if their innocent even knew about demons, but they had to start somewhere if they were going to vanquish this guy. She saw realization dawn on the girl's face.

"So, you guys are, like, good witches, right?" Dawn asked, relaxing a bit. So she wasn't kidnapped. They'd thought Spike was trying to make her a midnight snack and came to rescue her. That was great! She could ask that one witch with the teleporting powers to take her somewhere without Spike being able to track her down, it was perfect. Then she remembered, Spike! Spike who was still frozen in an alley somewhere! She couldn't just leave him there.

"You know about witches?" Teleporting witch asked, surprised.

"I have a friend." Dawn replied casually, before frowning and asking in as steady a voice as she could, "Hey, you know the demon you, uh, rescued me from? Um, is he, you know, gonna be all frozen like that forever?"

"What? Oh, no. It doesn't last forever, it should be wearing off any second now. Which is why, we need to be ready if he tries to track you down again." The witch who could freeze people said in a very down-to-business kind of way. "So do you know why he was after you? Or maybe his name?"

"Well, his name is Spike, but I really don't think there's any reason to be 'ready' for him. I mean, all you have to do is just teleport me someplace far away, so he can't come find me again. Right?" Dawn replied, hoping the witches would go with her plan. She really didn't want them trying to stake Spike, since he was really only trying to help.

Phoebe listened to the young girl, who was in the club but really couldn't have been more than about 16 years old, and could sense that there was something bothering her. She sensed a bit of guilt and worry, and thought she might be worried over them having to face this demon. She gestured her over back onto the couch and sat down beside her, "What's your name, sweetie?" She asked the girl gently.

"Dawn." She replied flatly.

"Well, I'm Phoebe, this is Paige, and that's Piper, and we're going to help you. Running away isn't the answer." Phoebe said, introducing her sisters.

"Oh, P3, I get it." The teen laughed a bit awkwardly. She felt really guilty over the 'running away isn't the answer' thing, even though she knew they didn't know the whole story. She wondered what they would do if they knew she was running away from home. Well, she wasn't going to tell them, that's for sure.

Phoebe sighed, the girl was feeling even more guilty, but she couldn't tell why. "Okay," she addressed the room, "I'll go check the Book of Shadows for this 'Spike' guy." She was already halfway upstairs before she finished her sentence.

"Hey, wait! It's _really_ not necessary to look him up." Dawn started, trying to find a reason other than 'he's just trying to bring me back home and the worst thing that could happen to me is getting grounded til I'm twenty'. That wouldn't go over too well. And she couldn't paint Spike as some sort of vicious killer, because she didn't want him getting staked. At least as far as she could tell, the three witches hadn't figured out he was a vampire yet. Maybe there weren't many vampires in San Francisco...

"You look hungry, how about I go heat up some leftover pasta?" Piper asked, giving Dawn a real motherly vibe. Dawn nodded while Paige sat beside her on the couch. Once Piper was in the kitchen, Paige started, "So, what's up?"

"What's up where?" Dawn asked actually a little confused.

"You seem a little upset, and not just usual demons-are-out-to-get-me upset, but just good old-fashioned teenage my-life-sucks upset. Trust me, I know all about it. So, what's up? Where are your parents?" The social worker in Paige was sending her all sorts of signals, and she didn't need to be an empath like Phoebe to figure out something was bothering the teenager more than demons.

"I'm not upset!" Dawn countered in a more defensive voice than she ment to use. She quieted down and sat back on the couch, "My parents are dead, my mom died of cancer last year, and my sister pretty much committed suicide." Dawn decided to tell at least part of the truth. "But, it's fine. I'm 18, so I can totally take care of myself. I'm gonna get a job somewhere and then I'll be fine."

Paige let out an internal sigh, losing your family was not something you can be 'fine' over at any age, and this girl was definitely not 18. But now was probably not the time to push her, the youngest Charmed One thought. "Well, we don't have a whole lot of space, but I'm sure my sisters would agree in inviting you to stay for as long as you need. But first, we just have to take care of your little demon problem. Don't worry, we're professionals."

Dawn was shocked that they were going to let her crash there for a bit, that would solve a lot of her problems, at least until she found a job somewhere. She was just about to thank the red-haired witch, when she realized they were still on about Spike. She quickly went back to trying to think of a good excuse, and came up with none. Instead she decided she was just going to have to steer them off the demon slaying course, and just hope Spike didn't find her again. "Yeah, about that, you guys really shouldn't bother. It would be a waste of time. He's probably not even after me anymore. You know demons, they kind of have a short attention span. He's probably totally over me by now."

* * *

A trash can flew out of the alley behind P3's causing a few people to purposely cross the street to avoid the area. Spike let out an angry roar and slammed his fist hard on the wall, causing an unsightly crack in the bricks. He was so close! She was less than 5 feet away and then, poof, she was gone! Taken by some bloody do-good witches he bet, and now how was he supposed to find her? He let out another roar and threw another trash can.

Okay, she can't have been taken too far. He thought, attempting to calm down and think rationally. The one brown haired bint he saw ran the club, or at least worked there from how he saw her fussing at the bartender. He just had to go ask about her. They were human, they probably had an address and everything. Getting in would be an issue, but he'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

He leaned against the bar and ordered a bourbon with a few bucks he picked out of a guy's pocket as he waded through the crowd. After the sweet burning liquid was safely down his throat he asked the bartender about the girl who had been sitting there just a few minutes ago. It didn't take the guy much time to reply, "I don't know what you want, but if it's a date, Piper Halliwell is out of the question. She's married, and more than that, she's a real bitch. She just hired me, about two weeks ago, and I can see why the other guy left. She gets on my case about everything, and she's not even here half the time. Look, it's barely 11:30 and she's already disappeared."

Spike muttered something generally sympathetic and blew the last of his stolen money on another shot. He hated being sober, especially for so long. The guy had gone on more than necessary, but he had enough information. Next thing he did was fade back into the shadows, and while no one was looking, slipped toward the back and broke into a room labeled Halliwell. It was a impersonal sort of office, but it had exactly what he was looking for: bank deposit slips, forms, and other material with the Halliwell's address on it. He took one of the documents and slipped back out the way he came with no one the wiser. He couldn't be sure that's where the bint's had taken the Nibblet, or that she was still there if they had, but it was a place to start.

He got back into his sun-proofed DeSoto wishing he'd stayed to have a bit more to drink (he was barely tipsy), but decided Dawn took priority and sped out toward his destination.

* * *

While Dawn was eating her pasta, which was surprisingly good considering it was only leftovers, Paige decided to go see how Phoebe was doing looking up their demon. Apparently she was having no luck.

"There's plenty of demons with spikes, but there aren't any named Spike." Phoebe sounded exasperated as she began flipping through the book again. "Does she know anything else about this demon that could help identify him?"

"She won't say. Her mother and sister recently passed away, and I think she's lying about her age to keep out of foster care." Paige said walking over to stand by her half-sister. "Here, switch. I got a pretty good look at the guy."

Phoebe moved away from the open demon and spell book and thought over this new information. "I thought I felt uneasiness coming from her. Losing her mother and her sister, I can relate. It must be so hard on her." She said sadly, thinking of her own mother and Prue.

"Aha! Here he is." Paige announced triumphantly.

"What? That was fast. What was he under?" Phoebe moved to look over her younger sister's shoulder. The drawing of the demon in the book was a bit different that what they saw; for one, instead of bleached blonde, slicked back hair, he had light brown slightly curly hair, and he was wearing a brown overcoat instead of the black leather they'd seen him in, but upon closer inspection of his face, they could see this was the demon they were looking for.

"William the Bloody. William - now doesn't that just strike fear into the hearts of many?" Paige chirped sarcastically. "No wonder he went for a name change. Of course 'Spike' sounds like the dog from Tom & Jerry, and it's not exactly what I would call witty."

"It says here he earned the name torturing his victims with railroad spikes." Pheobe read with a horrified expression, there was no way she was going to let this guy shove a railroad spike through Dawn's head.

"I stand corrected. That's completely gross." Paige said as she read on down the article. "It says here he's a vampire in the family of Angelus... hey, I thought all the vampires were vanquished already!"

"Obviously he didn't get the memo." Pheobe replied, "And, that's odd, he froze and the vampires we met before weren't effected by Piper's power."

"Yeah, your right, that's weird." The red-head said still looking at the book. "Well, I, for one, don't have any stakes on me, and it's about 7 hours til sunrise, so - potion and a spell?"

"Right. Let's go tell Piper." The two witches headed downstairs into the living room where they heard a loud crash.

"What was that?" Piper looked over at her sisters, who were at a loss as well. Nothing inside the house seemed broken. Dawn thought she had a pretty good idea of what happened but didn't say anything.

It was Paige who looked out the window first. "Anyone know someone who drives a black DeSoto?"

"He ran over our mailbox!" The eldest witch screeched, right before the doorbell rang. Dawn dropped her head to her hands.

All three witches looked at each other, with confused expressions on their faces. It was Paige who ended up opening the door, only to slam it shut right after. There was a muffled curse and then loud, pounding knocks. "Okay. Vampire. At the door."

"What?" Piper moved around her sister to look through the peephole. There he was, all bleached-hair and leather, pounding and cursing at the door. "Alright. Why is there a vampire at the door?"

"I don't know, but let's hurry up before he gets tired of waiting." Phoebe taking the spell that they'd prepared for the Vampire Queen that she'd taken from the attic. It would need a bit of tweaking, but it should still work.

"He sure doesn't sound pacient. Why isn't he just breaking in?" Paige took a peek at the vampire as well.

"He can't just come in, he's got to be invited." Dawn said, coming over to join the group. "Wow, you guys sure don't know anything about vampires."

"What? That's not true, is it?" Phoebe looked to her other sisters.

"I never heard of it, and I was a vampire for a while." Paige replied still keeping an eye on the vampire trying to break down their door.

"You can't just un-become a vampire. That's stupid. Once you're a vampire you're dead." Dawn shot back. Of course, Buffy came back from the dead, but as far as she knew, you couldn't revive a vampire - ensoul them, yes - revive, no.

The proceeded to tell her something about a queen vamp and Paige not drinking human blood before the queen got dusted so she went back to being human - all stuff she never heard of in all the time she was the Slayer's sister. So, basically, she just ignored it. Vampire Queen? For Spike she had to figure that meant Darla or even the Master if it could be 'Vamp King' - and both of them dusted with Spike, Drusilla, and Angel coming out of it just fine.

"Well, I've dealt with a lot of vampires, especially Spike, so I know what I'm doing. Watch." She made to open the door when Pheobe stopped her. "What are you doing? It's dangerous!"

"No it isn't. I'll just stay inside the threshold. Trust me, I've got this." The teenage key said confidently, "Besides, Spike would never hurt me."

"Is that so? That's not what it looked like from where I was standing." Piper put in.

Dawn crossed her arms like she usually did when she wanted to feel more in control. She'd thought up the perfect excuse. "I didn't want to tell you earlier, because I thought you might think it's weird, but Spike is totally in love with me."

* * *

To be continued...

* * *

A/n: Leave some nice reviews for me please!


	3. Chapter 3

**City By The Bay**

A Buffy/Charmed Crossover

Summary: Set in 6th Season. Dawn runs away to San Francisco and it's up to Spike to track her down. Unfortunately Dawn isn't willing to come home and the Charmed Ones aren't willing to hand over a young girl to a soulless vampire.

A/n: Reviews! Yay~! Thanks for the reviews, and favorites, and alerts! They make me really happy! Anyway, I didn't really make it all that clear, but this is Seson 6 of both Buffy and Charmed, which means Leo, lil Wyatt, and future Chris are all around - just not _around_. For my story's sake they're all at Magic School for now (I know, I know, it's night, but oh well), but don't worry, they'll pop up in the story later, so just keep reading and reviewing and you'll find out!

* * *

_Last time..._

"Trust me, I've got this." The teenage key said confidently, "Besides, Spike would never hurt me."

"Is that so? That's not what it looked like from where I was standing." Piper put in.

Dawn crossed her arms like she usually did when she wanted to feel more in control. She'd thought up the perfect excuse. "I didn't want to tell you earlier, because I thought you might think it's weird, but Spike is totally in love with me."

* * *

Spike growled loudly in frustration. Once again he was just a few seconds away from snagging the lil bit and hauling her off back to Sunnydale - but now he has a new obstacle. And the obstacle was this huge bloody _annoying_ house that he couldn't step foot in without being invited. Spike growled animalistically and slammed his fist on the door one more time. The blow would have broken a door to an unoccupied house to pieces, but the natural sanctity of a home kept him from doing anything to intrude. He couldn't even hear what was going on inside the house as well as he should, which was even more frustrating.

He thought briefly about yelling through to the witches that he was only trying to take the lil bit home to her sister, but that thought died as soon as it came. He'd come to terms with the fact that watching over Buffy and Dawn was more important than doing evil, but he sure as hell wasn't going to go around _announcing_ it to everyone. Even if the witches did believe him, he wouldn't be able to take the bloody embarrassment - not to mention the stab to his pride.

Heaving an exasperated sigh that was more of a drawn-out yell, he gave up on the knocking and sat down on the porch, his back resting on the immovable door, and took out a cigarette and his silver lighter. He lit up and inhaled the smokey death into his long-stopped lungs. He had to calm down and think a little more clearly, which, he could admit, was hard for him. He just had to wait - and patience was sure as hell not one of his few virtues - and hope that the Nibblet would come around. He knew the girl enough to know that she wouldn't leave him sitting out here all night; even back when Buffy had shut him out of the house, she'd sneak out to meet him where he'd lurked around the tree in their front yard. Then again, even though he felt like he knew the little girl, her running off without even telling him was something he never imagined her doing. '_Bit just grouped me in with the rest of those wankers_.' He thought, thinking about the Scoobie's an' their tendency to keep Dawn in the dark about things.

He was sure he never did that. Nope. He wasn't stupid enough to think that not telling her about things would make her life all rainbows and puppy-dogs, if she asked he was tellin' - not like she wouldn't find out eventually. This method was one he found worked real well on Dawn, and he was able to take care of the Slayer little sister as if she was his own kin. He was under the impression that Dawn trusted him, and that all was left was the Slayer herself - so imagine his surprise when he found the bit had skipped off without saying a word. He gritted his teeth together and tossed his burnt out cigarette into an empty flower pot before lighting another. Six an' a half hours til sunrise. If she's ready to go by then... he sighed, knowing it could only be his last resort: he'd have to call Buffy.

* * *

"He's in... what?" Paige spoke first, her face pulled more in a look of disgust than the outright shock her sisters were in. First of all, even if she was 18 (which she was _not_), that vampire looked almost near his 30's, not to mention he was probably a helluva lot older than that with the whole immortal business; and second of all, _eww_! Vampires were dead and evil, and sure they didn't look too bad and even Billy Idol out there was kind of cute, but dead and evil were total deal breakers.

The other two witches were thinking along the same lines as their sister, however at the moment they were too stunned to say anything. Dawn, however, took this as an insult to her and frowned. Was Spike falling in love with her _that_ hard to believe? He'd been in love with Drusilla, who was completely_ insane_, and then Buffy, who was a _Vampire Slayer_ - why couldn't he fall for her who, compared to those two, was relatively normal? Was she really not pining material?

Instead of backing down, however, her stubbornness picked up, and she held her ground. "In love, yeah." Dawn said flatly, "Don't believe me? He used to stand out in front of my house all night, waiting for me. And he's always trying to protect me from things!" She quickly stated her case, following up the not-so-true with the truth. So Spike hadn't really been waiting for her, exactly, but he was always protecting her! It was... sort of plausible.

This snapped the witches out of their original stupor. Phoebe moved to wrap her arms around the teenager in a reassuring hug. She'd sensed doubt and insecurity coming from the girl, and though the middle witch had no trouble believing the girl's claim that a demon had his sights set on her, she had a feeling that other people had been less helpful. "Oh, come here sweety, it's alright. You don't have to worry, we'll take care of it, I promise."

Dawn looked surprised at the sudden, very sisterly, embrace she was in and looked between the witches who all had various expressions of pity, disgust, and anger written across their faces. _'O-kay, don't think I got the message I wanted across.'_ She thought dimly. They had the same expressions that she would have expected on Buffy if she'd told her Spike was in love with her - and he just hoped it wouldn't end the same way. She'd been trying to _keep_ Spike from being staked after all.

"Okay, I don't get what's with the looks. I'm just telling you I'm not in any serious danger, so I really don't need any supernatural help. Really, he's not gonna hurt me." Dawn tried to keep calm to get the witches off of kill-Spike mode. She probably should have guessed what was coming, but she was still caught be surprise when Phoebe pulled away a bit to look her in the eyes. "Dawn, listen to me, he doesn't really love you."

Dawn blinked, surprised despite herself. She knew that wasn't a you're-not-old-enough-to-have-someone-fall-for-you or a you're-not-special/pretty-enough kind of remark like her own insecurities had made up. It wasn't about her. It was Spike, and they were saying the same things the gang had tried to sell her back at the Magic Box: Spike doesn't have a soul, Spike is evil, Spike can't love anything. And now, even though she couldn't do or say anything before to her friends, she was really angry. The Scoobie's had the fact that Spike tried to kill them before still in their minds, but these girls hadn't even _met _Spike. "How do you know he doesn't? You don't know." She bit out bitterly.

Phoebe was suprised at the tone of the little girl's voice and the anger that flaired at her statement. At first she couldn't figure out what was wrong, Dawn couldn't love him, she was trying to run away from him. The only thing she could think of was... "Okay, look sweetheart, I'm not saying that no one can love you. I love you already! And, by the time you get to college, you'll have more boys sending you flowers than you'll know what to do with." The columnist said with a smile, trying to cheer the girl up. "But, Dawn, he's a demon, he's evil. And there's no love in evil."

"You don't know that." Dawn replied with a frown while she avoided the witch's gaze. Phoebe felt a pang of hurt. She knew better than anybody, since the person who first told her those words ended up being the greatest example of it. There's no love in evil. "Yes, I do." She returned after a few seconds, and her tone of voice make Dawn look up from the ground.

Deciding to break the tension a bit, Piper clapped her hands. "Okay, he might not love her, but he's definitely obsessed. And what do we do with an obsessed demon? Right, we vanquish it. Everyone into the kitchen." The eldest witch said with the air of someone who was definitely in control. Dawn guessed all big sisters were like that.

"Wait!" Dawn had to yell to make sure she got the witches attention. "Look, either way, he's not going to hurt me. Let me just talk to him really quick, okay? I'll stay in the house the whole time, promise."

"Still not convinced on the whole, 'not invited' thing." Paige said with the support of her sisters.

Dawn rolled her eyes and moved passed Phoebe to the door and opened it. At first she thought Spike really had got bored and left, but the sudden curse of "Bloody hell!" coming from below told her otherwise. She looked down to see Spike with his head and back bent forward, obviously he'd been leaning back against the door and had bounced off the barrier when it opened. The vampire quickly scrambled to his feet with an annoyed look on his face. It made Dawn a little nervous, since she'd never seen him look at her that way before.

"Ready to come along now, bit?" He said in a voice a bit staler than he usually used with her. He couldn't help it, he'd been searching for her for 3 whole days with barely any blood or booze, and now he'd just spend the better part of an hour just sitting there. He was itching to rip something's head off, and it seems like stray demons where scarce on this side of town.

Dawn folded her arms while standing firmly inside the house's threashold. Spike couldn't supress a groan at what the Scoobie's would have undoubtable called 'Dawn's resolve face'. "Oh, come on!" The vampire said each word separately and turned in place like he was looking to the sky for the answer to why Dawn was being so difficult. "What then? What do you want?"

"Okay, well I'm not coming, but I will talk to you." The teenage key said, trying not to look like she was effected by Spike's obvious irritation. Spike narrowed his eyes at her and then looked behind her at the three witches. "And the audience is for what exactly? What are they, you're muscle?"

"Oh you listen here, bud, we're not letting you take Dawn anywhere, and until you prove that you really can't get in here to hurt her, we're not going to leave her alone with you." Piper cut in, staring Spike down. "And if you so much as lay a finger on her, I. Will. Blow. You. Up."

Dawn looked at the sister with surprise and whispered, "You can do that?"

The eldest witch responded with a nod and "Yes I can." while Spike just gave a huff to cover his own surprise. He mumbled in a way that was just barely audible, "The kid was right, you are a bitch."

"Hey-!" Piper began, only for Dawn to put her hand out to stop her. "Alright, stop already! Geez! Spike," she turned to look at the vampire who'd watched out for her all summer, and even longer than that if she was really thinking about it, "If you want to talk to me alone," she emphasized her point, "You have to prove you can't get in."

"What?" Spike said, before catching the girl's drift. Oh, hell no. "I'm not bouncing off the bloody barrier for your own bloody _amusement_!" Spike snapped angrily, making all the girls, except Dawn, take a small step back. "You really wanna know? Go read a bloody book. '_Vampire's cannot enter a household without invitation_', you'll see it in black and white. Now, if you'll excuse us?"

Spike's mocking courtesy at the end did nothing to assuage the witches and they all seemed to bristle at the vampires attitude. Paige was the one to speak, "Um, newsflash, we have a book. The best, I might add, and no where did it say vampire's can't get into someone's house."

Dawn could see this was going no where fast. "Spike, come on. Just really quick. You only have to do it once, I swear!"

Spike was really considering saying 'no', and just going to call the girl's sister, but when he looked up at her he knew he couldn't deny her the chance to explain herself. He turned and walked away a bit with a low growl born out of humiliation, then with the quickness of his kind, he turned and lunged at the open doorway - only to hit the barrier like a brick wall and go flying a few feet in the opposite direction.

The blonde vampire got up quickly to save some face, and was pleased to see that his 'attack' had scared the witches back a few feet into their house, and even Dawn had backed up out of suprised. This small feeling of pride was destroyed, however, when the two youngest witches began to shake, until they both erupted into a fit of giggles. Spike tried to snarl as threateningly as he could, but the witches didn't seem to be paying anymore attention to him.

"Oh, my God! Did - did you see?"

"It really worked! Oh, that is so going in the Book of Shadows!"

They carried on like that for a while longer, Dawn looking apologetically at Spike, until finally he yelled, "Alright! Everyone nice an satisfied? Everything all cleared up?" He glowered dangerously, "Good. Scamper off now, I have a few matters to discuss with the bit here."

This settled the witches down, though all three of them, even Piper who had restrained from laughing, had smiles on their faces and where considerably less-threatened. Spike was seething.

The witches looked at Dawn, as if to ask 'is this alright?' to which she answered, "I'll be fine. Promise."

With that and a few last glances at Dawn and glares/giggles at Spike, the three witches disappeared into the kitchen.

Dawn watched them go and only when she couldn't see them anymore did she turn back to Spike. "Okay, I'm not going back, like I said. But I'll tell you why if you want to know."

"I'm all ears, bit."

* * *

The three witches stood in the kitchen, gathering different ingredients, happy that they had enough in stock to make the potion. They'd decided as soon as they got in the kitchen that even if he couldn't get in the house, and even if Dawn was too nice to want the vampire dead, they were going to have to vanquish him. They couldn't let Dawn know about it, or she would try to stop it, but the witches knew better than to let some demon grow this unhealthy obsession with a little girl. It would only end badly for Dawn.

"Alright, so we don't have any stakes, and I'm not sacrificing any of out furniture, so this is going to have to do." Piper said while mixing the ingredients together in her cauldron. Phoebe was busy rewriting the spell she had planned to use on the Vampire Queen hoping that if it was good enough to kill the queen it was good enough to kill this guy.

Paige helped her sisters where she could, especially in the potion-making part, still her mind stayed on Dawn. The girl had lost a lot already, and though it was sick, and probably not completely realized, she could tell that the girl was fond of the vampire stalking her. It was going to be hard on the girl, she knew, but hopefully they would be enough to comfort her. And, Paige thought, remembering the feeling she'd gotten from the girl, hopefully they would be able to uncover whatever it was Dawn was hiding from them.

* * *

_To be continued..._

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A/n: Reviews pwease~?


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